Roger Ailes: Why Fox covers Benghazi

Fox News chief Roger Ailes on Wednesday slammed the IRS as “arrogant” and said he wants to know what President Barack Obama was doing on the night of the Benghazi attack in his acceptance speech for the 2013 Bradley Prize.

Ailes delivered remarks for winning the $250,000 award — he said he would donate the money to a charity for senior citizens — at the Kennedy Center and addressed the IRS scandal, Benghazi and how Fox News covers currents events. According to the speech posted on FoxNews.com, Ailes said the network reported on the deadly attack in Benghazi “even though no other network would touch the story.”

Text Size

-

+

reset

“I have come to the conclusion that even I don’t care what the president of the United States was doing that night,” he said. “However, I would like to know what the commander in chief was doing that night.”

Ailes also called Benghazi “an important story because it involves two hundred years of our military ethos, which is: If we ask you to go out in the middle of the night and risk your life for America, we promise that we will backstop you. And, try to get you out if it is humanly possible. In Benghazi we did not do that.”

And the Fox News chair and CEO blasted the IRS as “arrogant” and told his audience the government is “about to hire 16,000 more IRS agents to enforce healthcare” — a number factcheckers such as PolitiFact and Factcheck.org have described as false, however.

“Forty-seven new tax increases — no wonder they need guns,” Ailes said. “Now we already know the IRS is arrogant. They waste as much money as the other government agencies. They enjoy pushing people around, and they can’t line dance. We don’t need 16,000 more people who can’t line dance!”

“And we don’t need more people with guns, enforcing our healthcare,” Ailes said, alluding to the agency’s enforcement division. “’All right Granny, get your hands up. It’s the last time we’re telling you. Take your Metamucil!’”

He also told the audience that he believes the United States is “in a storm, the mast is broken, the compass is barely functioning, and there is a big damned hole in the boat!”

“We have allowed ourselves to be manipulated by others, many of whom want to impose their culture and laws under the manufactured utopian idea that all cultures are equal and most are better than America’s,” he said, adding that “of course all people should be proud of their heritage” and that “immigrants will always be welcome here.”

“But America is a culture, too,” he said.

Ailes acknowledged the country’s political split, adding it “is hard to figure out if it is ever going to get back together.” But regardless of party, he said, there are a few things every American should agree on.

“Government must reinforce the value of the individual and life,” Ailes said, according to the posted remarks. “Government must have programs to help individual independence flourish and not reinforce dependency. Votes must not be purchased by corrupt organizations or individuals on false missions of mercy. Freedom cannot be compromised anywhere. Anti-Americanism needs to be answered every place, every time. By every one of us.”

And, Ailes added, “you know how I know this is a great country?”

“Because everybody is trying to get in, and nobody is trying to get out,” he said.

Ailes closed his speech by focusing on what he said makes the United States strong: “God, country, family.”

“I have listened to the criticism of the United States,” he said. “I’ve watched even some Americans systematically try to dismantle the greatest country on earth and yet we are still strong. We’re strong, because of three words I believe, God, country, family. I cannot and will not apologize for any of those and anything that enhances those, I will defend them with my life.”

The Bradley Prizes “formally recognize individuals of extraordinary talent and dedication who have made contributions of excellence,” according to the Bradley Foundation. Along with Ailes, the 2013 recipients included National Affairs founding editor Yuval Levin, the former solicitor general Paul Clement and former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels.